Rash of shootings don't fit the mold in Salinas

Capping the year's bloodiest week, Salinas police are trying to figure out why field workers and a man newly arrived from Mexico were targets in multiple shootings late Sunday and early Monday.

With five wounded and four dead from three attacks that took place in less than 24 hours, the violence follows a week of Salinas street warfare that may be unrelated, police say.

Following the worst of the day's shootings, police on Monday arrested a suspect after a man opened fire on a crowd, striking seven people at an East Side restaurant.

Three men died of multiple gunshot wounds from the attack.

Giovanni Pacheco, 21, was arrested around 9 a.m. when police stopped him on Del Monte Avenue after he drove away from his residence. Police said Monday afternoon they had not recovered a murder weapon.

Detectives and others familiar with Pacheco's history say he is a Norteño gang member with a juvenile record. He was arrested in 2010 on charges of being a gang member in possession of a firearm. Court records indicated he was sentenced to probation in April 2011.

Police say Pacheco was with friends inside Tacos Choice Restaurant at 608 Williams Road when he got into an argument with other patrons.

The groups took the fight outside around 1:30 a.m. Monday.

Pacheco allegedly pulled out a gun and opened fire on a crowd police described as "mostly field workers."

Seven people were shot and when police arrived, a 22-year-old man was dead at the scene. Another, age 28, died shortly afterward from multiple gunshot wounds at Natividad Medical Center. A third man, 25, died around 5 p.m. Monday.

A 53-year-old woman was struck multiple times and remains hospitalized, police said.

Also suffering what police described as non-life-threatening injuries from a single gunshot wound each were two 25-year-old men and a 24-year-old man.

The victims were not named by late Monday because police said they were still trying to track down relatives.

Around 4 p.m. Sunday, a 25-year old Salinas man was in critical condition after he was shot while drinking in front of the Ocean View Apartments at 44 Natividad Road.

Earlier, around 9:20 a.m. Sunday, 23-year-old Ruben Francisco suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene in the 1100 block of Parkside Drive, known as a Sureño gang area.

Police said it appeared Francisco had no gang affiliation and had just arrived from Mexico two weeks earlier, but acknowledged it's possible that rivals might have mistakenly believed he was a gang member because of the neighborhood.

That's part of the dilemma investigators are facing with recent shootings. While some of the violence is believed to be motivated by escalating feuds between rival groups, detectives say the Tacos Choice shooting and another recent homicide, both allegedly committed by known gang members, might not have been gang-motivated.

The fatal stabbing Thursday of 99 Cents Only Store security guard Victor Sosa, 57, was one example. The slaying occurred just days after suspect Richard Gutierrez, 22, was released from Monterey County Jail following a drunk in public arrest. Although Gutierrez is described as a known gang member, investigators said they doubt the killing was planned in advance or was gang-motivated.

But investigators say there is little doubt that north-south rivalries on the Central Coast are on the rise, among teenagers and older, more seasoned criminals.

In Monterey County, many of the shootings and the five slayings that took place in late July are believed to be spurred by increased activity in the area by Sureño gangs and the associated Mexican Mafia.

Local investigators say that for months, rival groups have been juggling for control of the area's drug markets after the leadership of the dominant Nuestra Familia regiment was dismantled by police and state and federal agents in late May.

Three days after a known Sureño gang member was killed by police on July 26, officers arrested his superior in the gang, Ramon Mercado, 30, on gun and drug charges and an outstanding warrant.

Officers deployed a Taser stun gun on Mercado after it appeared he was reaching for a gun, police said.

Mercado has a violent arrest history dating to 1995, and is suspected of being behind recent gang threats targeting law enforcement officers.

Although details remain scarce, also linked to Sureño gangs is the July 28 slaying of Janneli Garcia, a young mother who officers say was shot in a classic "execution-style" before her body burned in a fire in the Willow Lodge motel in Salinas.